I must say I have enjoyed this thread, but something about it just didn't sit right, and I just realized what it was. One of the things I love about GTD is that it tells you "where you are" because it is a "total life" list. Like most others I am sure, when I started GTD I found out that my lists were way too long and they had far too many projects. What that meant was that I had vastly overcomitted myself. I didn't really know where I stood, because I couldn't tell you what was really important out of all the things I had to do, because I hadn't tracked them all. And, because I didn't have a firm (read "reviewed weekly") grasp of what I had agreed to and what was really important, in my good-hearted way I agreed to much more than I was capable of reasonably doing.
The result: Once I started GTD, I was stuck having to slog through my NA's and Projects, and my agreeements with self and others, and renegotiate them. Sometimes that meant humbling myself and admitting I couldn't deliver the goods. At other times that meant being more realistic about the time-frame. What option did I have I was going to live with integrity and not play anymore "busy" games? In the end, although it was at times painful, I now can say that THANKS to David and Crew, generally what I choose to work on is more important - to me, at this moment - than everything else I am able to do in my current context. ...a tremendously liberating place to be.
In Productivity Principle #41, which I believe is now permanently ensconced in his book "Ready for Anything," David writes: "I maintain a healthy skepticism inside myself when people want to start getting control of their work and life by "setting priorities." That is often just an attempt to sidestep responsibility for a lot of what they have been engaged with irresponsibly."
I think that says it very well. I'm sure many are more capable than I am, but in the world I live in, no person who is honest can presume to deliver the goods in reasonable fashion (ie. not "Someday") to themselves or others on 357 things, ASAP. Some things just have to be dumped, or shelved, or perhaps renegotiated weekly if they are truly important and current. I don't think there is any other way to get to a "Mind Like Water" (a state which I still see far too infrequently) than to just work through it, all of it, starting at the top - and be honest.
At least, that is what I have slowly been learning.
Best Wishes,
Gordon